The State - News from Nov. 15, 1988

Former Irvine City Councilman C. David Baker will work with children and deliver hot meals to the elderly under a sentence imposed for forging a $48,000 check during his failed bid for Congress last spring. Baker had faced the possibility of a three-year prison term after pleading guilty to a felony count of forgery. But Orange County Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown reduced the charge to a misdemeanor as he sentenced Baker to a year of probation and an unspecified amount of community service. Brown also gave Baker a one-year suspended jail sentence. Baker admitted writing a $48,000 check to himself on the account of a nonprofit foundation he headed in the waning days of his unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination in the 40th Congressional District. He also admitted signing the name of a member of the foundation’s board of directors on the check, which required two signatures. At the time, Baker’s campaign was desperately short of funds. Baker stopped payment on the check shortly after it was written.